First Day Of School! First Day Of School!

While I live in Malaga capital, I actually work in a school in Cartama, a pueblo outside of Malaga. By car, Cartama is about a 20-25 minute drive, but by bus it takes an hour, and the buses only leave once an hour to make the trips between the two cities. Even though I went to visit my school last week and caught the 8am bus, and made it there right when school was starting with no problems, of course on my first day of work I missed my bus.

 I was supposed to be there at 10am, so I gingerly walked to the bus station to catch the 9am bus. Well, I guess I didn't walk gingerly enough because the bus was pulling away as soon as I got there, and to my surprise the next bus didn't leave until 10:15! So for my first day of work I was an hour and fifteen minutes late, but I live in Spain, so the only response I got from my school was no pasa nada, it's ok.

I haven't taken any pictures of my actual school, but the views are amazing. Here are a few pics I snapped while doing what else...waiting for the bus :)

Anybody know what movie the title of this post came from???

Best Pasta Ever???

On my second day at the hostel, I met Pierrick aka el loco. While Pierrick left us all with many fun memories, I don't think any of us will ever forget the pasta he made us. One day while we were at the beach, he casually goes "so I'm going to make yall dinner tonight." We were all like ok...sure (don't forget his nickname was el loco). We went to the grocery store and he wandered around for a bit, not really sure of what he wanted to make, and I'll admit that I was more than a bit skeptical about what he was going to cook. However, when I say he cooked one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had....

Dinner

Shrimp, clams, and chorizo

I had never eaten a clam a day in my life until he made this dish.

The chef, Pierrick

The aftermath...

Spanish Word Of The Day

"Piso"

Piso (pee-so): Apartment

Piso is the word used in Spain for apartment.  I'm pretty sure this word is unique to Spain because I told this Dominican guy that I was going to find my own piso in Spain, and he had no clue what I was talking about, and said he had never heard this word before; some other countries use apartamento for apartment.

I chose piso as the SWOD because I think I finally found a piso!!! The piso is right in the center of Malaga, and only about a ten minute walk from the beach :) The piso has four rooms and if everything works out, it will be myself, my friend Andrea from the hostel (who is French), and two Italian girls who are in the same Erasmus program as Andrea.

I think it's cool that even though none of us are from Spain, Spanish is the only language we have in common. I also think it's cool that one of my goals before I came to Spain was to learn French, so now I have the chance to learn French and Italian without even leaving my piso. 

 

Spanish Word Of The Day

"Visado"

Visado (vee-sah-doh): Visa

It's here!!!!!!! The last thing that I have been waiting on to make my move to Spain official was my visado, and today, it arrived!!!!! A few weeks ago, I did a post about all of the paperwork required for the Visa , and after all of the waiting, all of the background checks, and a trip to Washington, DC...it's here!!!

 Now it truly is official, next Monday morning I'll be moving to Spain. :)

Spanish Word Of The Day

"Medicina"

Medicina (meh-dee-scene-ah): Medicine

Today's SWOD is pretty straight forward. Medicina is only one letter different from it's English cognate, medicine.

I went to the dentist today to get a filling, and even though it was a quick and painless process, I literally couldn't feel OR move the right side of my mouth for a couple of hours after my appointment. This made for a very interesting afternoon at work trying to speak Spanish only having the ability to move one side of my mouth. Needless to say, there were plenty of laughs all around :)

Spanish Word Of The Day

"Piscina"

Piscina (pi-scene-ah): swimming pool

 

Since I'm at the beach this weekend, I thought I would give a "beach-themed" SWOD (please forgive the fact that I still have been lacking in the daily part.)

On those hot summer days, people worldwide love to spend their day at the piscina.

My view today at la piscina.

Spanish Word Of The Day (SWOD)

"Falta"

From wordreference.com:

Falta (fall-tah):

1. (carencia, ausencia) ~ de algo ‹de interés/dinero› lack of sth;
   por ~ de fondos owing to a lack of funds;
   ~ de personal staff shortage;
   es por la ~ de costumbre it's because I'm/you're not used to it;
   no es por ~ de ganas it's not that I don't want to;
   siente mucho la ~ de su hijo she misses her son terribly;
   a ~ de un nombre mejor for want of a better name;
   a ~ de más información in the absence of more information;

Essentially una falta is a lack of something. In my post below where I stated "The only problem is una falta de motivation to run," I meant that I have a lack of motivation to run. 

If there are any words or phrases that you'd like to know how to say in Spanish, or any Spanish words that you'd like to know how to say in English, feel free to leave them in the comments and they can be the next Spanish Word Of The Day!

Spanish Word Of The Day

"Tapas"

From wordreference.com via Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary © 2009 Oxford University Press:

Tapas (top-uhs): "In Spain, these are small portions of food served in bars and cafés with a drink. There is a wide variety, including Spanish omelet, seafood, different kinds of cooked potatoes, salads, cheese, ham, and chorizo. They can be very elaborate, and people often order several to make a meal. Tapas are part of a lifestyle and the social aspect is very important. The practice of going out for a drink and tapas is known as tapeo."

Here are some photos of some of my favorite tapas:

Spanish Tortilla (Similar to a potato omelet)

http://spanishfood.about.com/od/tapas/ss/tortilla.htm

Croquetas (Fried dough that can be filled with chicken, ham, cheese, tuna, vegetables, etc.)

http://www.recetasdiarias.com/recetas/carne/croquetas-de-jamon/

Dátiles con Tocino (Bacon Wrapped Dates)

http://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?userid=qDEp8O-EREbWu_bQNb5ChA&select=0wWFrv6iFWBU9wsCGKnWXA

"Llena"

Sorry I've been sort of slack with my "Spanish Word of the Day" post. I kind of just slipped a word (llena) into my post yesterday, but today, it gets all the glory it deserves---aka, one whole post dedicated to it on my so-so great blog ;)

From wordreference.com:

lleno,-a (yay-no; yay-na)
I adjetivo
1 (colmado) full (up)
luna llena, full moon
2 (superficie) covered: está llena de manchas, it's covered with stains
3 (gordito) plump
II m (en espectáculos) full house
♦ Locuciones: figurado de lleno, fully: se equivocó de lleno, he went fully wrong

Llena literally means full, and can be used to describe anything that is full. If you're at dinner and don't have room for dessert, you would say "estoy llena" or I'm full.

Papeleo

I've been thinking about doing a sort of "Spanish Word of the Day" type post to share my love of Spanish with my readers, so today's word pretty much describes the whole process (program application and visa application) of becoming an Auxiliar: Papeleo.

Papeleo = Paperwork

Here is a portion of the papeleo I had to take to the Spanish Consulate in Washington, DC to apply for my visa:

One National Visa Application

Carta de Nombramiento (Acceptance Letter)

FBI Background Check w/Apostille of the Hague

Medical Clearance w/Apostille of the Hague

Ingles o Espanol....English or Spanish

Un resulto de mi habilidad de hablar español  es que tengo amigos, en los EE.UU y en España también, quien solo puede hablar español. Quiero compartir mi blog con todos, pero no se en cual manera. ¿Debo escribir todos de mis mensajes en ambos ingles y español? ¿O debo crear un otro blog solo en español? ¿Qué piensas? ¿Qué debo hacer??